WindowsScan

Posted: January 21, 2011

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	10/10
Infected PCs:	187

First Seen:	January 24, 2011
Last Seen:	July 5, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

WindowsScan, also known as WinScan and Windows Scan, is rogue security software from the FakeSysDef family, designed to con trusting computer users out of their money. Although the WindowsScan program tries to look like an actual Microsoft application, it was actually created by criminals and has no useful functions. Tolerating WindowsScan on your system will result in a proliferation of false positive errors that will hamper the proper use of your machine. If you find WindowsScan inhabiting your computer, it should always be deleted along with any malware Windows Disk might have brought along for the ride.

A Brief Analysis of WindowsScan's Rogue Scanner

WindowsScan is virtually a twin to many other rogue scanners such as System Defragmenter, Ultra Defragger, HDD Control, Win HDD, Win Defrag, Win Defragmenter, Disk Doctor, Hard Drive Diagnostic, HDD Diagnostic, HDD Plus, HDD Repair, HDD Rescue, Smart HDD, Defragmenter, HDD Tools, Disk Repair, Windows Optimization Center, Scanner, HDD Low and Hdd Fix.

WindowsScan and its clones share their tactics and drawbacks with just a few alterations to the outer appearance. Windows Disk even comes from the same country that must of other rogue programs hail from - Russia. WindowsScan was released into an unsuspecting world in 2011. Its similarities to other rogue software may allow a non-updated scanner to catch WindowsScan, you should always keep your scanning software up to date for the best chance of fighting the WindowsScan infection off.

Delivery of WindowsScan to a system is usually done by way of a Trojan infection, which will happen in a hidden or disingenuous manner. In contrast, WindowsScan itself is anything but hidden! You can expect a constant stream of error reports while WindowsScan is installed, because it's programmed to alert the user automatically without actually checking for any real problem. Some commonly reported error messages are:

You are running very low disk space on Local Disk (C:).
RAM memory usage is critically high. RAM memory failure.

WindowsScan will always start with your computer and run in the background, and will constantly pester you to perform fake scans with WindowsScan. The information WindowsScan offers is all manipulative, designed to encourage you to shell out your personal info and money to hackers. Buying WindowsScan or giving any serious consideration to anything WindowsScan communicates will only put your identity, finances, and computer all in danger.

Other Reasons to Distrust WindowsScan Rogue Scanner

Just like many others, WindowsScan is a rogue scanner that isn't just content to present false system diagnostics. Not removing WindowsScan will also result in excess usage of your system resources, as well as a seemingly random lack of access to software and programs that functioned perfectly well before WindowsScan was installed! WindowsScan may also act to install additional malware, which can cause pop-up advertising, hijacked browser incidents, altered browser and security settings and loss of privacy due to keylogging. Your system is ultimately not even remotely safe while WindowsScan resides on it. Consider WindowsScan a hostile intruder, and use standardized reliable malware removal techniques to clean this scum from your hard drive.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\AxaiRCLSb.exe

File name: AxaiRCLSb.exe
Size: 381.44 KB (381440 bytes)
MD5: 1ef93890e41e2933a9d9ceb2408f2c17
Detection count: 3
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: January 8, 2020

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

File name without pathWindows Scan.lnk

2 Comments

ras says:

January 28, 2011 at 7:37 pm

Help i accidently purchased this program i got pop ups then it said my virus software was gone when i tried to get it to remove this virus but i called this number i had no reply it was some answering machine with garbled labguage. It also looked like my yahoo archives is missing or is it? But now i cant even get on my computer i shut it down now all im getting is windows xp sign on screen when loading what can i do?
GotScanned says:

February 6, 2011 at 12:52 am

RAS - trying starting up in SAFE mode (hitting F8 while Windows loads). Sounds basic, but it will let you start up without WindowsScan hijacking your system. At least you'll be able to remove the executable mentioned in this article. Hope it helps. I'd like to find the little pencil-neck that worte this.